


Parting Gift

by corrielle



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, and i want them all to get along again, i just love jack and max and anne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-09 04:45:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10404243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corrielle/pseuds/corrielle
Summary: A missing scene from 4x07. Jack and Max clear the air between them before Jack leaves Philadelphia.





	

The captain’s cabin was lonely without Anne, though Jack understood her desire for a dark, private place to curl in on herself while she healed.  Too much ship’s business passed through his door to give her what she needed.  Still, on this last night before he sailed and she stayed on land, he wanted to be in her company for a little while longer. Later, he would go and sit with her while she slept.  He did this less than he had at the beginning of their voyage, when her survival was not certain, but he still slipped into her little cabin at odd hours, and he thought she seemed glad to see him when she woke while he was there.   

A sharp, familiar rap on the door preceded Max, who held her cloak closed against the cold with one hand and cradled a bottle of wine in the crook of her other arm.

“What’s this?  Parting gift?” Jack asked.

“I was hoping we could talk, and I was hoping this would help you listen,” Max said.

Jack turned two heavy glasses sitting on his desk right side up and pushed them toward her.  “I’m listening.”

It wasn’t the first time the two of them had drunk in his cabin alone, while all but the night watch were sleeping.  At first, it had been because each understood the depth of the other’s worry, and it was a relief for both of them to feel it without the need to explain it. He wasn’t sure what it was that brought Max to him now, but she had uncorked the bottle and handed him a glass of wine so dark it was almost black. He took a sip, and so did she.

“Extraordinary,” he said. “Tastes like… late summer, when everything is heavy and blown with fruit and flower, just before it turns to decay.”

“I found the wine merchant the Guthries use.  I presumed they would have good taste.” She pulled up the second chair from against the wall and sat down across from him.

“As grateful as I am,” Jack said, raising his glass, “I am also curious.  What do you want from me?”

“An answer to a simple question.  You know me well enough to know that I abhor uncertainty.  I like to know where I stand with those whose fortunes are linked to mine.  So, here is what I want to know. You made a choice on that beach in Nassau.  You didn’t have to offer me a place on this ship, and I want to know why you did.  No one who mattered would have known if you had left me, and most people would have thought you were right to do it.”

Jack took a slow, deep drink, savoring the rich taste, and when he set his glass down on the desk it was half empty.

“I’ve asked myself that question,” he said. “The first answer should be obvious.  Anne. I knew there was a chance that one day, she might have a change of heart, learn that I had the chance to save you and I didn’t, and be saddened by it.”

Max was very still, the way she was when it was taking every bit of self-possession she had to maintain her poised, elegant demeanor.  Jack had seen her do it before, but not often for his benefit.

“You said that was the _first_ reason.  There are others?” she asked.

“I had a good idea of what would happen to any person left on that beach when the Spanish took it, and I could not wish those terrible things upon you, even after everything.”

“For what it’s worth, I never wished the terrible things the Spanish might do to a person on you, either,” Max said.

Jack’s laugh was short and bitter.  “You certainly had a funny way of showing it.  If I was the type of man to hold a grudge, I might have turned my back on you that day and reminded you of the time you _lied_ to Anne and agreed to trade me to Havana.”

“But you remind me of it now.  Because you _do_ hold this grievance against me.”

“More than any other,” Jack said.  “It cost me Charles.” He would have liked to think it was the wine making him honest, but in truth, the angry words were always at the back of his throat when Max was near. 

“I will not pretend to understand what it was for you to lose him, but I need for you to hear me when I say that I had no part in it.  I may have betrayed you, betrayed Anne in a thousand ways while I worked with Rogers, but turning you over to the Spanish was not one of them.  When I met with Anne, I offered the exchange in good faith, and, for all his faults, I believe the governor did as well, because if I had even the slightest suspicion that you would not be released, I would never have gone to the meeting.” 

Jack was leaning forward now, hands folded so tightly on the desk between them that his tendons strained at his knuckles. “So what happened?”

“The terms were changed after I left Nassau.  By the time I returned, the Spanish had added you to their list of demands, and the governor had accepted the deal without my council and made me a liar without my knowing it.”

It was a plausible explanation, and Jack wanted to believe it. It made more sense than Max, who had taken such pains to ensure that all three of them had futures, who so clearly loved Anne, possessing the cruelty required to take so much from both of them. 

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Jack asked.  “And why didn’t you tell Anne any of this?”

“She doesn’t want to hear it,” Max said.  “But I thought you might be ready to.”

“Give her time,” Jack said.  He unclasped his hands, drained the last of his wine and, without asking, refilled both of their glasses. “Anne is… slow to forgive, but you are not without hope.  She forgave me for leaving her once, too.”

“And you?” Max regarded him over the top of her glass. “I said I would not apologize for what I’ve done out of necessity, but I can still hope that you will not hate me for it.”

“I haven’t _hated_ you for a long while now,” Jack said, only knowing the truth of it as the words left him.  “I suppose that’s a third reason I asked you to come with us.”  He shrugged. “Partners can fuck each other in the most horrible ways that are, in hindsight, unthinkable, but in the thick of things seem inevitable and unavoidable.  That doesn’t mean that when the moment comes, partners who have fucked each other in this way want to see each other dead.  Take the much-lamented Charles Vane, for example. He fucked us royally more than once, and Anne and I did the same to him. But when a mob who wanted Charles’ head stormed my gate, I shot one of them between the eyes, and when Rogers tried to send me to the Spanish, Charles risked everything to save me.” 

He took a deep breath, for what he had to say next was not an easy memory to put in words.  “And even though I chose a captaincy over Anne once, she still saved my life the moment I returned.  What I’m saying is… in your case, I realized that when all was said and done, I’d rather have you as a living partner than a dead one.”

“So, we are partners again?” Max asked. She was still guarded and controlled, and he could see her readying herself for ‘no.’

“I wouldn’t be leaving Anne with you if we weren’t,” Jack said.  It was the truth, and he shared in her relief at having things between them clear again. When he reached across the desk and took her hand, she squeezed it back.  

Unable to let the silence sit too heavily for too long, Jack tapped his empty glass.  “Should we celebrate the renewal of our partnership with the rest of the bottle?”

Instead of pouring them another round, Max held out the cork to him.  “I say we save it for when you return.  Tide’s early tomorrow, _captain._ ”

“We’ll share a glass when I get back,” Jack said.  “And perhaps we can persuade Anne to join us.  You’ll keep it safe for me?” Jack said, and both of them knew that he wasn’t only talking about the wine.

“I will.”  

When Max left him, she closed the door behind her as quickly as she could, but the snow that had blown in swirled for a moment before melting in the warmth. 

 

 


End file.
